HBO "True Blood"

This holiday season, HBO reminds fans of its popular series True Blood, Entourage and Eastbound and Down that nothing beats the original. A new campaign from BBDO, New York, pushes boxed DVD sets of the shows with humorous spots showing people re-creating their favorite scenes for fans. One guy, trying to impress his True Blood-loving girlfriend, builds an elaborate smoke-spouting rig he uses to enact a tense love triangle exchange among Sookie and her two vampire suitors. His effort is met with a dumbfounded look from the girlfriend, who is probably thinking her boyfriend has some hidden demons of his own. “This holiday leave the HBO to us,” reads the onscreen copy. True, a cardboard cutout of Eric Northman just doesn’t get the blood pumping quite the same way, but the amateur theater could be funnier. Online, at www.makeyourownHBO, visitors can create and share their own clips using augmented reality technology that controls virtual sock puppets.--Eleftheria Parpis

This holiday season, HBO reminds fans of its popular series True Blood, Entourage and Eastbound and Down that nothing beats the original. A new campaign from BBDO, New York, pushes boxed DVD sets of the shows with humorous spots showing people re-creating their favorite scenes for fans. One guy, trying to impress his True Blood-loving girlfriend, builds an elaborate smoke-spouting rig he uses to enact a tense love triangle exchange among Sookie and her two vampire suitors. His effort is met with a dumbfounded look from the girlfriend, who is probably thinking her boyfriend has some hidden demons of his own. “This holiday leave the HBO to us,” reads the onscreen copy. True, a cardboard cutout of Eric Northman just doesn’t get the blood pumping quite the same way, but the amateur theater could be funnier. Online, at www.makeyourownHBO, visitors can create and share their own clips using augmented reality technology that controls virtual sock puppets.--Eleftheria Parpis